America, Part Deux

As the title might suggest, our time spent in France has been significantly different in experience and landscape than that I had in Spain. Certainly there is a change in people and attitudes and the way we are treated.

First, the landscape: ever much more like the United States than Spain. We have encountered beach towns which could have been ANYWHERE in the midatlantic on the coast including the kitchy American soft rock cover band set up at the end of the main drag toward the sea before the sand and oversized hotels with overpriced food in the bottom floor. We have also witnessed American type foods which surprised us and the Mega Super Market is in full swing and running small businesses out of town. New single family suburbs dot, or more accurately, consume, the countryside. None of these were the case in the Spain I saw. Amazing transformation. The French and Americans seem very closely tied.

On bikes, especially with my French jersey on, thank you Istvan, I am the most popular guy: people shout Vive la France out their windows and people honk and wave and kids on scooters yell Allez Allez! We are now in Tour de France country, also. Outside Beziers, the tour will pass this point in just 6 days! We will catch it somewhere near or beyond Avignon, so look at the replay that night, everyone, for the Americans holding a huge sign: TOUR de AWESOME. We are sure to get on the broadcast! I will give better info on that in the near future.

Yesterday we rode long and hard and even drafted a tractor for about 7 km and have pictures to prove it! We wound through vineyards and had our first rainshower in weeks. The feeling of water dropping from the sky onto the skin to cool us was a religious experience for me. Life giving water. I also had my first tire blow and it really went. Sliced the tire and thank goodness for my tire boots to keep me moving forward after a sweaty dirty tire repair which left me drenched and my hands black.

The day ended in a celebration though we do not exactly know what of. The local mens high school American football team rushed us in the street on our bikes as we rounded a corner looking for a place to end our days journey and force fed us strange alcohol mixed with lemonades and wines. We chugged to their cheers and they threw water all over us. They chanted and jumped up and down and so did we. This was the most exciting moment of the trip and we felt that the once American countryside held some secrets afterall. After a long ride we reached what we knew must be home in this beautiful, excited, lively French town and stayed at the hotel for showers and laundering and the first night of the 4 night festival in the town. Today we ride again, after a brief recovery, back to the sea!